Digital Rights Management is such a mess because none of the interested parties understand the technological developments they are attempting to legislate. But the most disturbing thing about all this legalese is that copyright infringement in any form is a civil matter, not a criminal one. The fact that congress is considering repercussions against universities for simply "not solving the problem" is ludicrous. But, law favors the side with money. Haha.

Incidentally, if you've ever wondered how the RIAA quantifies the "damage" you've caused, the formula is as follows. For every 10 individual works pirated, they estimate a loss of revenue $2500 (which comes to $250 per work). If you decide to drive your friend to suicide by illegally pirating a Celine Dion CD with, say, 13 tracks (because nobody in their right mind would pay for that sh!t), you have allegedly cost the music industry $3250.

Numbers aside, I find it insulting to suggest I would actually have purchased everything I've pirated. I waste more money on CDs and DVDs than almost anyone I know, and while I certainly have a few bootlegs and ill-gotten treasures in my collection, none of them are things that are 1) available for purchase or 2) things I would purchase. Thus nobody has lost any revenue from my activities. But I can assure the studios that if I am ever dragged into court over this, I will never buy anything from them ever again. And over the course of my lifetime, that would likely be a substantial loss to revenue (as substantial as the contributions of any single consumer could be anyway). Oh do I know how to hold a grudge!